Music Box
by Wibbly Wobbly Weirdo
Summary: Signas has given the O.K. to decorate Maverick Hunter Headquarters for the Christmas season. As he is decorating the tree, X has a run in with Alia and they discover a hidden treasure among the holiday knick-knacks.


**Hello all and Happy Holidays! Truth be told I wrote this before Thanksgiving, but held onto it until now. No real pairings, just kind of family/friendship fluffy goodness. Anyway, enjoy and have a Merry Christmas!**

(~~~)

X smiled as he gently placed a colored glass bulb on one of the green limbs of the enormous Fir tree that had been set up in the lobby of Maverick Hunter Headquarters. A bunch of the Units had pitched in to purchase a multitude of holiday decorations for the building. Signas even contributed by actually allowing the hunters to decorate.

X glanced at his work with a content sigh. He was nowhere near finished but he had made a good start on putting the various bulbs and ornaments on the tree. Earlier two hunters from Zero's unit had wrapped the enormous thing in strings of rainbow colored lights and shiny red and green garland. X took a moment to look out the windows and grin as he watched the other hunters painstakingly put strings of lights around the headquarter building while flakes of snow fell gently and began to stick to the ground.

Just as X was about to go back to his work, a tower of moving boxes with pink and white legs showing came around the corner rather shakily. "Look out! Unstable cargo coming through!" X raised an eyebrow, amused. "Alia? Do you need some help?" Said reploid obviously did not expect X to be in front of her and stumbled in surprise at his voice, ultimately sending the tower of boxes she held tumbling to the floor.

X had to stifle his laughter as Alia huffed in annoyance. "Jesus X, you nearly scared the circuits out of me." X smiled in apology as he knelt to collect one of the fallen boxes. "I'm sorry Alia. I figured you knew I was here. What's with all the boxes anyway?" Alia began gathering the other boxes as she answered him. "More decorations and knick-knacks. What else? Some snow globes, I think one is full of personalized stockings for everyone, and I know there's a music box somewhere."

X unfolded the flaps holding the box he held shut and glanced at its contents. Well there was definitely a lot of tissue paper, but under that X could see something shiny. The blue reploid gently set the box down and uncovered the object obstructed by the festive paper. Nestled in the box was a medium sized box made of a dark stained wood.

Alia abandoned her own box pile to come glance over X shoulder at the object. "Wow, that's really pretty. I guess that might be the music box. Pull it out, let's see if it works." X carefully lifted the music box and set it on a side table that was nearby. Alia looked back into the box and pulled out a handful of gold metal discs with holes in them. "I think you put one of these in it and it plays something." She said as she handed them to X.

He looked over each one before finally choosing one with _The First Noel_ written on it in cursive script. "I remember hearing this one last year." He opened the lid of the music box and carefully secured the disc into place. The two reploids shared and excited grin as X pressed a button on the side of the box and the disc began to spin. Soon bright chimes began to fill the lobby.

Alia laughed softly. " I think this sounds good in here, and something tells me you won't let me take it anywhere else anyway, so I'm going to leave it with your capable hands while I go and deliver the rest of this stuff to the cadets decorating the rest of the building." X helped her restack her box tower and waved as she headed off down an extending hallway. "See you later Alia." With a resigned sigh and a glance at the still playing music box, X returned to his task of decorating the tree.

As he worked, X would stop every now and then to either just listen to the music or change the disc. The hours flew by and soon it was well into the night. Most of the other hunters had returned to their rooms for the night, but X wanted to finish the tree. Part of his eagerness was that both Zero and Axl would be returning from an extended training mission the next day and X could just imagine their surprised faces when they were greeted by the luminous tree and its dazzling ornaments. Alia had stopped by before she herself had retired to her room and lit a fire in the fireplace of the lobby and placed garland and such around it.

"Finally finished." X stepped over to the light switch on the wall and dimmed the lights so that the tree glowed warmly through the lobby. A smile broke out on his face as he flopped down on one of the couches in the waiting area near the fireplace, making sure he could see almost the entirety of the tree. The music box was on a rotation of _Silent Night_ and chimed gently along.

X yawned. "I hope Zero and Axl get back soon. They'll…love it." Soon the male reploid's eyes began to droop. In no time at all, X was out like a light.

(~~~)

Zero stretched his arms above his head as he and Axl walked toward the lobby, having just returned from their training at nearly midnight. Axl trudged along slightly behind the older bot and rubbed his eyes in fatigue. "I wonder if X is up." Zero rolled his eyes. "Of course not you goof. It's like midnight. X would have gone to sleep a while ago." Axl huffed slightly. "I just missed him is all. I wanted to tell him about our trai- Whoa!"

Both reploids stared in awe at the glowing Christmas tree standing in the lobby. Axl quickly snapped out of his awe and ran over to it, smiling widely. "Cool! I've never seen such a huge Christmas tree before! Well…I've never really seen one other than pictures anyway, but still!"

Zero laughed slightly. "Signas must've given us permission to decorate for the holidays this year. I'll bet you ten bucks X decorated it…Hey, do you hear that?" Axl stopped his excited observations of the tree and looked around, confused. "What? Hear what?"

Gentle chimes floated through the air and filled the reploids' auditory sensors. Zero followed the sound to a wooden box with a golden disc rotating in it. "It's a music box." Axl bounded over to get a closer look. "Wow, it's pretty. " Zero nodded in agreement and looked around the lobby. A fire burned low in the fireplace, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary until his gaze came to rest on a small figure curled up on one of the sofas.

Zero quietly walked over to investigate and smiled warmly as he recognized his friend. X was curled up and clutching a pillow, fast asleep. His helmet had been removed and his armor had been switched out for a rather form-fitting green and red sweater and jeans. His face was slack and his mouth slightly open as he slept. Axl walked over, curious as to what had caught Zero's attention. "What's up Zer-Oh!" His voice was louder than he meant it to be as he covered his mouth with his hand and glanced apologetically at Zero. The red reploid hushed him, but it didn't do any good because X had already begun to stir, opening his eyes and blinking groggily. "Zero? Axl? Hey, you guys are back." He sat up and threw his legs over the side of the couch. Zero grinned at his friend. "Not waiting up for us were you?" X smiled sleepily and shook his head, pulling Zero into a hug then moving to hug Axl. "No, I guess I fell asleep after finish the tree."

The three reploids gazed at the tree. "I love it, X. It's so warm and colorful!" Axl remarked. X laughed and ruffled his hair. "Well I'm glad. I was so worried I wouldn't finish it by the time you guys got back." A quite snort of laughter from Zero drew X's attention. "What?" Zero pointed to the top of the tree. "I don't think you did." Sure enough, X looked up and saw that there was nothing at the top of the tree where the star normally sat. "What?! Damn, I must've completely forgotten the star! Hold on, it's around here somewhere."

X walked over to a stack of ornament boxes and shuffled through a few before pulling out a large stained glass star. He came back over to his friends. "I knew it was here. Axl, do you want to do the honors?" Axl's eyes widened in childish surprise as X handed him the star. "Really? Awesome!"

The two older bots watched in amusement as Axl hovered himself to the top of the tree and gently placed the star on it. Zero leaned to whisper in X's ear. "You spoil the kid too much." X waved him off with a laugh. "Oh come on Z. He's never had a Christmas tree before so let him have his fun."

Axl flew back down and ran over to X and Zero, linking his arms with both of them and staring at the tree. "Best. Christmas. EVER!"

(~~~)

**Hope you liked it. I'll post it on AO3 as well under the same pen name. Merry Christmas!**


End file.
